-t I while singing them. So the Mishna (JSuccah,
v, ]>:■•< tu the fifteen steps which led into the women's court, corresponding with the fifteen songs of degrees,
Stood the Levites with their instruments of mu.-ic. and sane,." Besides, the Great Hallel (q. v.) and certain verses of Psalms were also used, as may be seen from the treatise Succah, i\ . 5.
The poetry of this period is preserved in four forms: of Tephillah, Berakah, shir, and Mashal.
1. TJu Tephillah, or Prayer. — Of this form we have the four collects offered by the high-priest on the Day of Atonement (q. v. i, as preserved in the Jerusalem I !< ma-
ra and Midrash .lelamdeiiu. and which run thus: 1. For Himself and his Family: -Lord. I have committed in- iquity, I have transgressed, 1 have sinned. I and my house. Pardon, O Lord, the iniquities and transgres- sions and the sins which I have committed and sinned before thee. I and my house, as il is written in the law of Moses, thy servant : for on that day will he atone for you to make you clean, from all your transgressions shall ye before Jehovah be cleansed" { Yomah, iii, 7). 2. For Himself and thi Priesthood: •• Lord. I have committed iniquity, I have transgressed, 1 have Binned, I and my house, and the sous of Aaron, thy consecrated people. I beseech thee. Lord, to pardon the iniquities, trans- gressions, and sins which 1 and my house, and the >ons of Aaron, thy consecrated people, have perversely com- mitted, as ii is w ritten in the law of Moses, thy servant : for on thai day," etc. {ibid. iv,2). 3. Forth P largt : •• Lord, thy people, the house of Israel have done perversely; they have transgressed, they have Binned before thee. I beseech of the Lord to pardon the in- iquities, transgressions, and sins which thy people, the bousi oi l-rael. have perversely committed, and by which
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they have sinned and transgressed ; as it is written in the law of Moses, thy servant : for on that day," etc. 4. When he came out from the Holy of Holies : "May it please thee, O Lord our God, and the God of our fathers, that neither this day nor during this year any captiv- ity come upon us; yet if captivity befall us this day or this year, let it be to a place where the law is culti- vated. May it please thee, O Lord our God, and the God of our fathers, that no want come upon us either this day or this year; but if want visit us this day or this year, let it be due to the liberality of our charitable deeds. May it please thee, O Lord our God, and the God of our fathers, that this year may become a year of cheapness, of fulness, of intercourse, and of trade : a year with abundance of rain, of sunshine, and of dew : one in which thy people Israel shall not require assist- ance one from another. And listen not to the prayers of those who go forth on a journey. And as to thy people Israel, may no enemy exalt himself against them. May it please thee, O Lord our God, and the God of our fathers, that the houses of the men of Saron may not become their graves."
II. The Berakah, or Benediction. — The benedictory adoration of the name and dominion of God is a most proper and all-pervading element in the Hebrew litur- gy. Many of their prayers begin and end with it. The berakahs at the close of the several books of the Psalms (Psa.xli, 13; lxxii, 18; lxxxix, 53; cvi, 48) were prob- ably added by Ezra, or the prophetical men of his time, on the final arrangement of the canonical Psalter (comp. on these doxologies Gratz, in Monatsschrift jlir d. Ju- denthum, 1872, xxi, 481 sq.). Those which accompany the prayers of the Shemoneh Esreh, or eighteen benedic- tions [comp. the art. Liturgy], are believed to be of the same period. Thus Maimonides : " These benedic- tions were appointed by Ezra the sopher, and the beth- din; and no man hath power to diminish from or add to them" (Hilclwth Keriath Shema, i, 7 ; and Mich. Tefila, i, 11). "In the innumerable instances where, in the Mishna and Aboda, this form occurs, in which the ever- lasting name is hallowed, and the truth of the divine dominion is reverently confessed, it appears to have been the pious desire of the institutors of the synagogue ritual that supplication, with prayer and thanksgiving, should give a spirit and tone to the entire life of the people. Indeed, almost all the affairs of Hebrew life have the prescription of their appropriate benedictions" (comp. Berachoth, ch. vi-ix; Rosh ha-Shanah, iv, 5; Taanith, ii, 2, etc.).
III. The Shir, or Song, Chant (from shevar, *VlEJ, Sansc. sicar, sicara, "a song;" the Arab, zabara, i. q. savara, whence zubar, like the Hebrew mizmor, of the same import), is a metrical composition, designed for chanting, and consisting generally of the strophe, anti- strophe, and epode. We have a fine Biblical model in the fifteenth chapter of Exodus, on which see Kennicott and Louth. Apart from the divine poetry of the Scrip- tures, there are but scanty remains of Hebrew songs of a date prior to the destruction of Jerusalem. In the Mishna and Gemara we come upon a few reminiscences of them, as in the treatise Succah, fol. 53, col. 1, where, in connection with the solemnities of the Feast of Tab- ernacles, we find the following chant: